GE Is So Stoked About 3D Printing, They're Using It To Make Parts For Jet Engines

CONFIRMATION as to how seriously some companies are taking
additive manufacturing, popularly known as 3D printing, came on
November 20th when GE Aviation,
part of the world’s biggest manufacturing group, bought a
privately owned company called Morris Technologies.

This is a small precision-engineering firm employing 130 people
in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio.

Morris Technologies has invested heavily in 3D printing equipment
and will be printing bits for a new range of jet engines.

Morris Technologies uses a number of 3D printing machines, all of
which work by using a digital description of an object to build
it in physical form, layer by layer. Among the 3D printing
technologies used by Morris Technologies is laser sintering. This
involves spreading a thin layer of metallic powder onto a build
platform and then fusing the material with a laser beam. The
process is repeated until an object emerges. Laser sintering is
capable of producing all kinds of metal parts, including
components made from aerospace-grade titanium.

One of the attractions of printing parts is that it saves
material. Instead of machining components from solid billets of
metal, in which much of it may be cut away, only the material
that is needed to shape the part is used. Printed parts can also
be made lighter than forged parts, which promises fuel
savings.

Many manufacturers already use 3D printing to make prototypes of
parts, because it is cheaper and more flexible than tooling up to
produce just one or two items. But the technology is now good
enough for it to be used to make production items too.

Among the components that Morris Technologies plans to print will
be some used in the LEAP jet engine (pictured), which is being
developed by CFM International, a joint venture between GE
Aviation and Snecma of France. The LEAP engine is scheduled to
enter service in the next few years on a number of short-haul
airliners. More than 4,000 engines have already been
ordered.

GE is buying Morris Technologies (which includes a sister
company, Rapid Quality Manufacturing) for an undisclosed sum. GE
sees the purchase as an investment in an important new
manufacturing technology. “Our ability to develop state of the
art manufacturing processes for emerging materials and complex
design geometry is critical to our future,” said Colleen Athans,
general manager of GE Aviation’s supply-chain operations.

Some people think additive manufacturing will overturn many of
the economics of production because it pays no heed to unit
labour costs or traditional economies of scale. Designs can be
quickly changed, so the technology enables flexible production
and mass customisation.

The GE deal is further evidence for those who believe that
product innovation will increasingly go hand-in-hand with
manufacturing innovation. So proximity of production and R&D
will matter more. With GE Aviation based just outside Cincinnati,
the firms are almost neighbours.